Flawed funding of arts and culture undermines regions’ chance to thrive post-Covid

Embargoed until 00:01 Monday 7^th September 

Flawed funding of arts and culture undermines regions’ chance to thrive post-Covid

• New Fabian Society research calls for councils and metro mayors to be given greater control of local arts and culture spending
• Local spending on arts and culture is 38.5% lower than ten years ago, with £860 million in real terms cut from annual council spending
• Arts Council England National Lottery funding, intended to support community arts and culture, spent £50.40 per person on organisations based in London, compared to £21.26 per person for the rest of England

New analysis from the Fabian Society reveals that centralised public funding of arts and culture is not working, by failing to treat areas consistently, and disproportionately favouring national institutions. 

The Fabian Society’s new research, Cultured Communities, argues that there is a long-standing crisis in arts and culture funding, fuelled by a decade of government cuts, that has left community arts and culture extremely vulnerable to lockdown, especially outside London.

The report says that the way financial support is allocated and distributed means that whilst London is hit by local council arts cuts too, centralised National Lottery arts funding from Arts Council England, which is intended for community organisations, still favours arts in the capital. Between 2009 and 2018 Arts Council England National Lottery funding allocated spent £50.40 per person in organisations based in London, compared to a rest of England average of £21.26 per person.

Cultured Communities calls for devolution of power and funding over the arts so that councils and mayors can repair the damage caused by years of cuts and the pandemic. Local authorities should be supported by Arts Council England, not dictated by it, affording ‘a reset of the arts and culture funding across England which will secure a focus on grassroots organisations, freelancers, and small creative businesses.’

Ben Cooper, Fabian Society researcher, said:

“Community arts and culture is an economic must have for every village, town and city if the Government is serious about levelling up. These grassroots organisations can support the high street, the hospitality sector, and improve everyone’s quality of life. If the arts thrive, we all do.

“The arts and culture ecosystem must be supported from the grassroots up, which is why councils must lead the way. They are rooted in their communities, know local cultural assets, and are best placed to shape the sector with sustainability and resilience at its heart.

“The government must put councils and combined authorities at the heart of funding decisions, giving them the flexibility, freedom and resources to urgently redress the balance. Arts Council England’s expertise can combine with local councils’ on-the-ground knowledge to make this money go further, faster.”

The arts sector’s unprecedented financial challenge post lockdown was acknowledged by the Government in June through the release of a £1.6 billion support package, but it took 20 days for the first tranche of funding, 0.2 per cent of the overall package, to be made available.

The report asserts that this is symptomatic of why whole swathes of the country have been stripped of arts and culture provision, and consequent economic potential, over the last decade – funding from the centre doesn’t reach the organisations that need it quickly enough, if it does at all. It calls for monies to be directly injected where needed most. 

Ends

Ben Cooper is available for interview, to book a slot or request more information please contact: Steph Driver, 07990576918

stephanie.driver@fabians.org.uk

Editor’s Notes:

1. Indicative National Lottery funding budgets for each Combined Authority (over 10 years) based on a similar level of National Lottery funding over a decade, as was spent between 2009 and 2018.

1. Cultured Communities is calling for the government to reset the dynamic between the regions and the capital, through a series of radical proposals that put councils at the heart of allocation.

• Councils should be responsible for delivering the government’s planned second round of 2020/21 arts and culture grant funding, worth £258m, working in partnership with Arts Council England.
• Central government should provide a 5-year funding settlement for local government, plus an additional £500 million Arts Future Resilience Fund. The settlement would give councils the certainty, flexibility and resources to invest in the sector. The Resilience Fund would be weighted towards deprived areas, and matched to increases, with 2019/20 as a baseline, in arts development, museum and galleries, theatres and public entertainment, libraries, and heritage budgets
• Central government to require Arts Council England to distribute National Lottery funding fairly across the country, on an equal per person basis by 2025
• Devolution of this funding should be piloted in Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, by arms-length organisations accountable to local politicians. They would be required to implement transparent and robust processes and to work closely with Arts Council England to benefit from their expertise and capacity where necessary.

1. Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants is an open access programme intended to support individual artists, community and cultural organisations. National Lottery funding supports community arts and culture, such as Falmouth Poetry Group for a poetry festival, Incloodu for an arts festival for the deaf, and Artlink who work to increase diversity in the arts sector. The Arts Council’s National Portfolio Organisations is a separate funding stream focused on supporting nearly 700 bodies or institutions deemed as of national importance. For example, National Theatre and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

1. The report’s new analysis of council spending on the sector in regions across England between 09/10 and 18/19, the research found:

• Every region has felt this impact. Cuts were proportionately worse in the West Midlands (44.6 per cent), East of England (41.5 per cent), North East (39.6 per cent), and the North West (38.9 per cent), while in London the percentage cut was 38.6 per cent
• Every English region saw a cut of at least £15 per person, with some regional differences: London’s per person cut was highest, at under £22 per person, but spending was much higher to begin with and remains higher now
• Looking at city, town and village classification, the largest percentage cuts were in councils classified as ‘village or smaller’ (46.7 per cent) or ‘medium towns’ (41.5 per cent), but councils in London and classified as ‘core city’ which tended to spend more beforehand experienced the largest per person cut in their budgets (£21.71 and £21.19 respectively).

1. In addition, centralised community arts funding from Arts Council England also favoured the capital:

• Between 2009 and 2018 Arts Council England National Lottery funding allocated spent £50.40 per person in organisations based in London, compared to a rest of England average of £21.26 per person.
• In addition, 41.4 percent of all 2018-22 Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) funding, for more established arts organisations is assigned to organisations based in London, where only 15.9 per cent of England’s population live

In London, the provision equates to £74.30 per person, compared to a rest of England average of just £19.93 per person

1. The creative industries are worth over £111 billion to the UK economy, employed over 2 million people, and grew five times as fast as the UK economy as a whole in 2018.